Giant Cake Fit for the Queen’s 90th Birthday

You can’t keep our Gareth away from a challenge! If there’s a giant cake to be made, he’s the man for the job.

When the opportunity arose to feed over 600 local residents at a special street party in honour of the Queen’s 90th birthday, naturally we jumped at the chance!

As part of a local competition organised by Odiham Parish Council, children from Buryfield Primary and Mayhill Junior Schools got their thinking caps on and put pen, crayon and paint to paper, hoping for a chance to see their designs immortalised in sponge.

Mayhill Junior School entered designs for a centrepiece cake, while children at nearby Buryfields Primary School designed cupcakes.

We were blown away with the results! The children put a lot of time, energy and creativity into their designs and picking the winners was a difficult task.

Firstly, we had to choose the winning cupcake designs. These were supplied by budding artists (Esme Hunt, Evie Le’fant, Poppy Curtis, Sebastian Simpson, brother & sister Emily and Ollie McConnell, and finally Tattie McArt). The designs included Union Jacks, royal carriages, crowns and castles. Their colourful drawings would be printed on edible icing to top cupcakes for hundreds of street party goers.

There were also plenty of great designs to choose from for the giant cake which made our decision very difficult. However, after much deliberation, we decided on Freddie Tristam and Libby Hughs from Y3, Jessica Ives and Daniel Parker from Y4, Jack Scotting and Lena Mairs from Y5, and Mim Taylor from Y6. Straight away Gareth could see a fantastic idea coming to mind!

Gareth went back to Mayhill Junior School to work with the pupils on creating a design using elements of the winning entries. Buckingham Palace would be the giant centrepiece with Odiham-inspired additions – a Chinook – and iconic symbols of the Queen like the handbag.

Time for Gareth to get to work! It took over 100 hours to create and ingredients including:

13kg margarine

50kg caster sugar

220 eggs

13kg self-raising flour

3kg brown sugar

2kg plain flour

1kg cocoa powder

1kg chocolate

17kg icing sugar

9kg butter

20kg of fondant

Boy oh boy, were they pleased with the results!

At a special street party on June 12th, the giant cake replica of Buckingham Palace and over 200 cupcakes were revealed to the hungry residents of Odiham. Needless to say, there wasn’t a crumb left!

The cake was ceremoniously cut and raised an incredible £1100 for the Mayhill Junior School PTA.

Being part of this competition was a proud moment for Odiham Cake Company and the community we love so much.

Huge thanks to the children for their hard work and effort in making this momentous occasion so memorable. We’re sure Her Majesty would be very proud.

Pictured left to right: Jon Hale (Chairman of the Parish Council), Station Commander Group Captain Phillip Robinson OBE DFC, Ranil Jayawardena MP for North East Hampshire, and Gareth Jones, Odiham Cake Company.